Mantua, Philadelphia

Mantua is a neighborhood in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Part of the neighborhood was purchased from the Lenape in 1677 by William Warner, and it was named in 1809 by Judge Richard Peters, who named it after the Italian city of Mantua. Prior to the 1940s, Mantua was a predominantly white and Lutheran neighborhood, but black families began moving into the neighborhood during the Great Migration. During the 1960s, violence and crime became common on the streets, and it became one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. Between 1960 and 1969, Mantua had 10% of the city's gang killings, and drug-related gang warfare began in the 1980s. The existing heroin market and the rise of crack cocaine caused many residents to flee, and the drug trade began to wind down in the 1990s, although many homes remained vacant. In the late 1990s, many of the abandoned homes were bought, renovated, and put on the market for rent, and it saw an influx of Drexel University students who were in search of affordable housing.